Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus, an image pickup system, a driving method for the image pickup apparatus, and an inspection method for the image pickup apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
An image pickup apparatus including a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix and a plurality of analog-to-digital (AD) conversion units respectively corresponding to columns where the plurality of pixels are arranged has been proposed.
The image pickup apparatus described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-60334 includes a plurality of column AD circuits, each including a data holding unit and a data switching unit. When a defect is detected by the data holding unit, the data switching unit of each of the column AD circuits performs bit shift of data to be output to the data holding unit, so that a deficit of the data caused by the defect in the data holding unit hardly occurs.
In the image pickup apparatus described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-60334, since the data switching unit is provided to each of the plurality of column AD circuits to suppress a decrease in image quality, a problem occurs that the circuit area of the plurality of column AD circuits is increased.